The Second Epistle of St Paul to Timothy (2 Timothy)

The Second Epistle to Timothy, in the Vulgate Epistola ad Timotheum Secunda, is the last word we have from St Paul. With the First Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus it forms the Pastoral Epistles, letters to bishops on the care of the Church. But this one is a farewell: a prisoner near death writes to the disciple he loves most, to strengthen him and call him to his side.

Who wrote 2 Timothy?

St Paul the Apostle. The letter opens with his name: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God... To Timothy my dearly beloved son" (2 Timothy 1). Everything in it is personal: Timothy's ordination at his hands, the faith of Lois and Eunice, the persecutions "at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra" told in Acts 13 and Acts 14, the cloak left at Troas.

The witness of the early Church is constant. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 notes that St Polycarp was "thoroughly acquainted" with the Pastoral Epistles, that St Ignatius knew them, that St Irenaeus "quotes them as St. Paul's," that the Muratorian Fragment ascribes them to Paul, and that Tertullian marvelled that Marcion had rejected them. Eusebius writes that Paul, released from his first captivity, came "to the same city a second time," and "in this imprisonment he wrote his second epistle to Timothy."

On 12 June 1913 the Pontifical Biblical Commission declared that the tradition of the Church shows the Pastoral Epistles were written by the Apostle Paul himself and always held genuine and canonical; that they were not pieced together from fragments after his death; and that objections from their style, from the errors they combat, or from the hierarchy they describe do not weaken that tradition. Many modern scholars hold that the Pastorals were written in Paul's name by a later disciple; the Church's tradition, which we follow, receives 2 Timothy as the Apostle's own testament. The lives of both men are told in our pages on St Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles and St Timothy, disciple of St Paul.

When was 2 Timothy written, and where was Paul?

At Rome, in Paul's second and final imprisonment, shortly before his martyrdom. Challoner's preface says that the Apostle "tells him of his approaching death and desires him to come speedily to him. It appears from this circumstance that he wrote this second Epistle in the time of his last imprisonment at Rome and not long before his martyrdom." The letter confirms it: Onesiphorus, "when he was come to Rome, he carefully sought me, and found me" (1:17).

The Acts of the Apostles close with Paul's first Roman captivity, two years under guard (Acts 28). The Biblical Commission (1913) held, with the Fathers, that the Pastoral Epistles were written between his release from that first captivity and his death. The Catholic Encyclopedia places his last journeys between 63 and 67, and St Jerome puts his beheading in the fourteenth year of Nero, on the same day as St Peter's martyrdom. 2 Timothy was therefore written about AD 66–67, the last of all his letters.

What is 2 Timothy about? A summary

St John Chrysostom gives the occasion: Paul had hoped to come to Timothy, and since he could not, "instead of coming to him, he consoles him by a letter," and he invites him to come. Each chapter is one movement.

Stir up the grace that is in thee (chapter 1)

Paul gives thanks for Timothy's "faith... unfeigned" and reminds him of his ordination by the imposition of hands (2 Timothy 1). Timothy must not be ashamed of the Gospel, nor of a master in chains; Paul is not ashamed, "for I know whom I have believed." He must "hold the form of sound words" and "keep the good thing committed to thy trust by the Holy Ghost," the depositum of the faith. All in Asia have turned away; only Onesiphorus sought Paul out in Rome.

A good soldier of Christ Jesus (chapter 2)

Timothy must hand on what he received to "faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2). He is to be a soldier, an athlete, a husbandman. Paul is bound, "but the word of God is not bound." Against Hymeneus and Philetus, who said "that the resurrection is past already," Timothy is to teach rightly, flee youthful desires, and correct opponents with mildness, "if peradventure God may give them repentance."

Dangerous times and the Holy Scriptures (chapter 3)

Paul foretells "dangerous times" and men with "an appearance indeed of godliness" (2 Timothy 3), who resist the truth "as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses," the magicians of Pharao in Exodus 7, named in Scripture only here. Timothy must expect persecution, as Paul suffered it, and hold to what he learned, "knowing of whom thou hast learned them," and to the Holy Scriptures he has known from infancy.

Preach the word; I have kept the faith (chapter 4)

The final charge is solemn: "I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead... Preach the word" (2 Timothy 4). Then Paul speaks of his own death and his crown. The letter closes with news: Demas has left him, "loving this world"; "Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee"; "Make haste to come before winter." Among those who greet Timothy is Linus.

Themes and the Catholic reading

Holy Orders and the grace of ordination

"I admonish thee, that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee, by the imposition of my hands" (2 Timothy 1:6). With 1 Timothy 4 ("the imposition of the hands of the priesthood"), this is the classic text for the sacrament of Order. The Council of Trent (Session XXIII, chapter 3) cites it, with the next verse, to show that Order "is truly and properly one of the seven sacraments." St John Chrysostom: "As fire requires fuel, so grace requires our alacrity, that it may be ever fervent." Our article on Holy Orders and the Catholic priesthood sets out the sacrament from the catechisms.

Tradition and apostolic succession

The letter is a handing-on. The deposit was committed to Timothy; he is to commit it to "faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2), and to continue in what he learned "knowing of whom thou hast learned them" (3:14). Here is apostolic succession in its first links. Among the last names of the letter is Linus, and St Irenaeus writes that "the blessed apostles... committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate. Of this Linus, Paul makes mention in the Epistles to Timothy." Linus succeeded St Peter as bishop of Rome.

Scripture and its inspiration

2 Timothy 3:16 is the chief New Testament text on the inspiration of Scripture. Leo XIII opens his account of the benefits of the Bible in Providentissimus Deus (1893) with it, calling it "the infallible testimony of the Holy Ghost Himself." Challoner's note gives the Catholic sense: every part of Scripture is profitable, but "if we would have the whole rule of Christian faith and practice, we must not be content with those Scriptures, which Timothy knew from his infancy, that is, with the Old Testament alone: nor yet with the New Testament, without taking along with it the traditions of the apostles, and the interpretation of the church." So St Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2: "hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle."

Merit and the crown of justice

The Council of Trent (Session VI, chapter 16) quotes 2 Timothy 4:8 in its teaching on merit: eternal life is a grace promised through Christ and also a reward "faithfully rendered to their good works and merits," for "this is that crown of justice which the Apostle declared was, after his fight and course, laid up for him." The judgment Paul awaits is set out in our page on the Four Last Things.

A martyr's death as an offering

"I am even now ready to be sacrificed" renders the Vulgate ego enim jam delibor, "I am already being poured out," like the wine of a libation. Chrysostom notices it: "He has not said of my sacrifice; but, what is much more, of my being poured out." In his Epistle to the Philippians Paul had already used the same Greek image of a libation (Philippians 2, where the Douay reads "if I be made a victim"), and in Philippians 1 had spoken of his "desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ."

Famous verses of 2 Timothy

2 Timothy 1:7

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety" (2 Timothy 1). The Latin is sed virtutis, et dilectionis, et sobrietatis; the King James renders the last word "a sound mind." The Council of Trent cites this verse with the one before it in its teaching on Holy Orders. Our article on what God says about fear takes it further.

2 Timothy 2:15

"Carefully study to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2). The King James has "Study to shew thyself approved unto God... rightly dividing the word of truth." The Latin sollicite cura means "take pains," and the next verse sets this careful teaching against "profane and vain babblings."

2 Timothy 2:12-13

"If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we believe not, he continueth faithful, he can not deny himself" (2 Timothy 2). God's fidelity does not depend on ours.

2 Timothy 2:22

"But flee thou youthful desires, and pursue justice, faith, charity, and peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." The counsel to a young bishop is a rule for every Christian: flight from the occasion, and the pursuit of virtue in good company.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

"In the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents... lovers of pleasures more than of God: having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid" (2 Timothy 3). Challoner heads the chapter "the character of heretics of latter days"; the warning already applied in Timothy's Ephesus.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

"All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work" (2 Timothy 3). Divinitus inspirata: God is the principal Author of the Scriptures.

2 Timothy 4:2-4

"Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears" (2 Timothy 4).

2 Timothy 4:6-8

"For I am even now ready to be sacrificed: and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming."

2 Timothy 4:17

"But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me... and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion" (2 Timothy 4). Eusebius thought "the lion" probably meant Nero, and St John Chrysostom says outright that Paul "calls Nero a lion from his ferocity."

Its place in the canon and in the liturgy

2 Timothy bears the same name in Catholic and Protestant Bibles and has 4 chapters and 83 verses. In the Douay-Rheims it is "The Second Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy," the eleventh of the fourteen Epistles of St Paul. It was never among the disputed books, and the Council of Trent (Session IV, 1546) names "two to Timothy" among the fourteen Epistles of Paul the Apostle.

In the Missal of 1962, 2 Timothy 4:1-8 is the Epistle of the Common of Doctors, the Mass In medio Ecclesiae, so that the charge "Preach the word" is read on the feasts of the Church's great teachers. St Timothy is kept on 24 January, the day before the Conversion of St Paul. Of the companions named in chapter 4, the one who stayed, St Luke the Evangelist, has his own page in our journal.

How to read 2 Timothy

Read it in one sitting first, as a single farewell, then beside its setting: the call of Timothy in Acts 16, the First Epistle to Timothy, and the end of Acts. Go slowly through chapter 1 and chapter 4, the most personal, with the Latin in view where the doctrine turns on a word: gratia, depositum, divinitus inspirata, delibor. Our pages on the Douay-Rheims Bible and the Latin Vulgate explain both texts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote 2 Timothy?

St Paul the Apostle wrote 2 Timothy to his disciple Timothy, as its first verse states. The Fathers from St Polycarp and St Irenaeus onward received it as his, and the Pontifical Biblical Commission (1913) affirmed that tradition shows the Pastoral Epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, were written by Paul himself. Many modern scholars attribute them to a later disciple, but this is not the Church's traditional teaching.

When was 2 Timothy written?

About AD 66-67, shortly before St Paul's martyrdom under Nero; it is the last of his letters. Challoner's preface says he wrote it "in the time of his last imprisonment at Rome and not long before his martyrdom."

Where was Paul when he wrote 2 Timothy?

He was a prisoner in Rome, in his second captivity, awaiting death. Eusebius records that "in this imprisonment he wrote his second epistle to Timothy."

What is the book of 2 Timothy about?

It is St Paul's farewell to Timothy, bishop of Ephesus. He urges him to stir up the grace of his ordination, to hand on sound doctrine as a good soldier of Christ, to stand firm in dangerous times through the Scriptures and what he was taught, and to preach the word, before speaking of his own coming death: "I have fought a good fight... I have kept the faith."

How many chapters are in 2 Timothy?

2 Timothy has 4 chapters and 83 verses, in the Douay-Rheims, the Vulgate and Protestant Bibles alike. You can read each chapter here, Latin beside English, beginning with 2 Timothy 1.

What does 2 Timothy 1:7 mean?

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety." Paul reminds Timothy of the grace received at his ordination: the Holy Ghost gives courage before persecution, charity, and self-control, so that a minister of Christ is neither timid before persecution nor ruled by his passions.

What does 2 Timothy 3:16 mean?

"All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice." The Holy Scriptures are inspired by God, their principal Author, and form "the man of God" in doctrine and virtue. It does not say Scripture alone suffices: Timothy must also hold to what he learned from Paul (3:14), with the traditions of the Apostles.

What does 2 Timothy 2:15 mean?

"Carefully study to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." Paul tells Timothy to be diligent in his office, so as to teach the faith accurately and without shame before God, avoiding the empty disputes of false teachers.

What does 2 Timothy 4:7 mean?

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Facing execution, Paul looks back on his life as a contest won, a race finished and a trust kept. The same "crown of justice" awaits all "that love his coming" (2 Timothy 4).

What book comes after 2 Timothy?

The Epistle to Titus comes after 2 Timothy, followed by the Epistle to Philemon; before it stands the First Epistle to Timothy. Every book is listed in our Catholic Bible.

Read the whole Second Epistle to Timothy verse by verse, Latin and English, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. The Second Epistle to Timothy, Latin Vulgate and Douay-Rheims (Challoner revision, 1749-1752), with Challoner's preface and notes; St John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Second Epistle to Timothy; St Irenaeus, Against Heresies III, 3; Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History II, 22; St Jerome, De viris illustribus 5; Council of Trent, Session IV, Decree on the Canonical Scriptures (1546), Session VI, Decree on Justification, chapter 16 (1547), and Session XXIII, On the Sacrament of Order, chapter 3 (1563); Pontifical Biblical Commission, response on the Pastoral Epistles (12 June 1913); Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus (1893); The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Epistles to Timothy and Titus"; Missale Romanum (1962).